LETTER: What a unitary authority could mean for Dorset

To answer some queries from readers on my recent letter (BVM 11th April) about partnership working and unitary authority for Dorset, may I just stress my main point?

Deloitte’s 2007 estimated £20million saving – even more substantial by now, surely – would be an annual saving, which we’d get only by Dorset going unitary and abolishing the middle tier administrations altogether.

The case is compelling. The formation of Dorset Waste Partnership and the sharing – albeit piecemeal – of services by WDDC and WPBC are in effect a tacit admission that these separate bodies are unnecessary, unfit for purpose and poor value for money.

WDDC’s titanic new office block in Dorchester, not only costing us millions but wiping out forever 150 public parking spaces, is an eloquent example of how one district council chooses to serve the interests of its taxpayers.

How much more of this can we afford? Allowing WDDC, WPBC and North Dorset to “work in partnership” simply perpetuates the problem and prolongs the pain.